I have several different "getting started" activities that students complete at the beginning of my online courses, but I really like using two assignments called "I Wish My Teacher Knew..." and Introduce Yourself to Your Classmates. The first simply asks each student to finish the sentence, "I wish my teacher knew...". They can tell me whatever is on their mind. Many responses are the typical "I'm really nervous about this class" or 'I'm really excited about this class", but then there are the other responses that really help me understand where a student is at mentally as well as academically. If I start noticing a student's grades start to slip, I can always go back to this assignment to begin gaining insight as to why. I learned about this technique from the book I wish my teacher knew by Kyle Schwartz.

I also have students post in a discussion board a favorite photo and tell the group a little bit about themselves. Some students post one photo, some post a whole collage. I am on the collage side of things as that is what I post for myself to introduce myself to my students (in addition to a welcome video).